On Monday, puffy hot pitas will come sliding down a roller-coasterlike conveyor belt and, hopefully, flying out the doors when Phoenicia Specialty Market greets its inaugural customers as the first major grocery store to open in downtown Houston in decades.

It's a day that downtown workers and residents - as well as city foodies - have been anticipating since May 2010, when the Tcholakian family, owners of the mammoth Phoenicia in west Houston, announced it would open a 28,000-square-foot international food market and restaurant at the One Park Place luxury apartment tower on the edge of Discovery Green. Downtowners will be able to comb through aisles boasting 10,000 gourmet and specialty food products from more than 50 countries. There will be fresh coffee, butcher meats, seafood and produce as well as cheeses, housewares, beer, wine and a 25-foot olive bar.

The market also will be making its own breads, pastries, pizza, sandwiches, international prepared foods and hot grill items.

And then there's the 150-foot-long conveyor belt that takes pita breads on a journey from the market's mezzanine bakery to customers on the ground floor - a theatrical flair worthy of Willy Wonka's factory. But for many, that's what Phoenicia will feel like to the specialty-foods-starved downtown: a kid-in-the-candy-store wonderland of endless jars of spices, bottles of olive oil, bins of dried beans, wedges of imported cheese, vats of hummus, yards of olives, dozens of varieties of fresh breads and a dizzying assortment of endlessly spinning rotisserie chickens and Phoencia's famous hand-carved shawarma.

In addition to being a new retailer downtown, the store will boast a 250-seat bar/restaurant called Phoenicia MKT Bar featuring international beer and wine as well as freshly prepared mezze and appetizer-oriented foods. The industrial chic design makes it a perfect urban playground for hipsters to share a farmers-market pizza or Moroccan sliders served against a background of live music, a local artists gallery and eventually documentaries and shorts from area filmmakers.

Co-owner Haig Tcholakian wants the store both to reflect the city's culture and inject excitement into downtown business development.

"This is something Houston hasn't had. We're not in it just for the business but to improve the city of Houston," he said. "We have great expectations of ourselves and the people who work for us."

Indeed, the store marks a leap for the Tcholakian family. In 1983, Bob and Arpi Tcholakian, formerly of Lebanon and of Armenian descent, opened Phoenicia Deli, a Mediterranean-style deli and grocery store near Beltway 8 on Westheimer. In 2006, the family opened Phoenicia Specialty Foods, a 55,000-square-foot international food market, across the street from the deli.

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Lifestyle

The new downtown market, in the planning for two-and-a-half years, will employ about 70 people. It's not lost on the second generation of Tcholakians, who work in the family business, the importance of this major venture.

His sister and co-owner, Ann Marie Tcholakian, said though the work has been hard, the rewards have been many.

"There's a lot of beauty in it, and it's very satisfying to build on what (her parents) started and what they created. My brothers and I have added to the business and improved the business. Every day we walk in and try to see how to improve it and make it even better."

It's also not lost on the Tcholakians what the store means to downtown, Anne Marie added.

"We're a small business, but we can help contribute to the energy of the city if others follow our example," she said.

Getting the store and restaurant ready for Monday's opening hasn't been without many headaches and hurdles, Haig said, adding that the biggest obstacle was fitting everything into the space.

"There have been growing pains," he said, taking a break last week as hundreds of finishing details were being accomplished under his watchful eye. "If we needed to sweep the floors, we swept the floors. But we also knew that it wouldn't always be like this."

Before the project began, Ann Marie recalls a friend saying that the day will come when the family could comfortably assess their accomplishments and all the hard work that went into opening the new store.

"I think about that. I know we'll be able to sit back and enjoy what we've done," she said. "It's beautiful and rewarding."